Value Engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Value Engineering - Essay Example Tremendous benefits are obtained from value engineering. Benefits are derived comes from the start of the planning, design and the actual construction. There is a great potential of verification if the budget is adequate for the developed program. Value engineering (VE) is defined as "systematic effort that is directed in the analysis of the functional requirements of procedures, systems, equipment, facilities, and supplies for the purpose of achieving the essential function at the lowest total (life cycle) cost consistent with meeting the needed performance, quality, reliability, maintainability, aesthetics, safety and fire resistance" (Kavanagh, 1978). The implementation of value engineering includes the six steps which are (1)information,(2)functional analysis, (3)creative, (4)evaluation,(5) planning/proposal and (6) implementation/follow up (Snodgrass and Kasi, 1986). In the creative step, brainstorming session is involved. Life cycle cost alternatives for the design components are considered. Value engineering and constructability are two different ways in terms of criteria discussed. However, this does not mean that they are exclusively mutual. Activities within the two processes complement each other in the achievement of their goals. This results in construction optimization, at the same time, achieving lowest life-cycle cost. For example, value engineering would recognize the increased benefit from the early implementation (O'Brian 1976). In the recent years, the use of total quality management (TQM) has spread from the manufacturing industry to construction. Organizations using TQM are adopting a management philosophy that makes quality a strategic objective for the organization.("Total Quality Management: The Competitive Edge" 1990). The successful application of TQM for contractor and owner organization in Japan, as well as some others in the U.S, and the UK, have increased in the recognition as an effective method to improve quality and productivity. Customer satisfaction and continuous improvement are the two principal objectives of TQM (Burati, 1992). In the construction industry, the parties involved in the project, including the owner, the contractor, and the designer, play the role of customer and supplier of services. The owner supplies the requirements to the designer, then the designer supplies the plans and specifications to the contactor, then the contractor supplies the finished building to the owner ( Juran, 1988). The corporate constructability program(CCP) includes the costs to start-up and maintain a corporate constructability program. The cost elements are written program procedures, computer software and hardware that contain the lessons-learned database, the constructability analysis tools and the corporate constructability coordinator (Russell and Gugel 1993). The estimated quantitative benefit for each major constructability idea may be totalled for each project and compared to the costs of constructability. This cost/benefit ratio could be a measure of the effectiveness and /or the maturity of the constructabil